Strength
by nimacu
Summary: A sweet little NarutoxIno fic about friendship and finding strength in it.


Title: Strength

Author: Nimacu

Summary: A sweet little NarutoxIno fic about friendship.

NoteCheck out the NarutoxIno forum under my screen name to go along with our NarutoxIno C2

They'd been friends for years and she thought she knew him well...at least until that night. Until that night she hadn't scratched the surface.

_ Ino had been on Naruto's team before, there was always laughter with the pain when you had a loud mouth with you. She and Chouji would volunteer for his missions, because nothing boring ever happened when he was around. But tonight they'd been separated from the rest of their team as they chased a dozen men through the forest systematically disabling each one. She didn't call it killing...if she'd called it killing then she'd be a murderer. She wasn't a murderer. The last man they disabled had taken a pot shot at her ankle in his attempt to escape and Naruto had come to her rescue. She really hated being rescued, that was more Sakura's gig. So if she'd been more than a little bit rude to him when he'd tried to help her to her feet than that was to be expected, after all she'd have found a way to finish the man. And if in his struggle to help her and her struggle to not be helped she'd brought him down too...if was ok if they laughed because if she had to be sitting on her rear in the mud so should he._

You can be so incredibly pig headed" Naruto had remarked as he looked at her giggling form

"You're actually not the first to mention it" She'd grinned at his indignation, if he thought that was a new insult he was behind the times.

"Would you at least let me look at your ankle?"

"I suppose"

"It looks like it hurts. A lot"

"Your powers of observation astound me"

"Let me put a splint on it before it gets too dark out"

"Yeah, go ahead and then you can head back to the village. If you don't care I'm going to set up camp here for the night before heading back. I'm not really into heading back tonight"

"I could carry you back"

"Yeah, but I'd rather you didn't" _What she didn't say and what they both knew is that early the next morning Shikamaru and Temari were to wed...and that she'd only taken this mission because it should have lasted longer. It should have lasted through the wedding...it should have spared her the moment of witnessing her heartbreak.  
_  
"I'll stay with you then"_ Naruto's grin the same as always, not letting her know that he was just as aware of her heartbreak as all the rest of her friends._

That'd be nice"_ As stubborn as she was she knew she didn't want to spend this night alone in the woods when she could have a friend with her._

_And so Naruto had set her ankle. Camp was set up then and fire gathered...and before long they were talking in the way old friends do of their younger days and mutual adventures and in time a quiet sort of good silence had settle over there campfire and they ate and settled for bed. And as it grew quiet she'd spoken, she wasn't sure where it came from but she knew Naruto would listen._

"He said he loved me" _she was more surprised than he to find tears in her voice._

"I know" _He said it with a quiet sort of acceptance.  
_  
"How can he take that back? Where did it go? Why was it not there one day? Why didn't I get any say it in?" _She voiced all the questions that had been bubbling inside her._

"Sometimes things happen to us that we don't get any say in...sometimes we get thrown into things we didn't want or need and we just have to forge through them" _Naruto answered with a sad inflection._

"But how am I supposed to do that? How am I supposed to act like it doesn't matter?" _She knew she was acting spoiled and childish but with Naruto that didn't matter._

"Don't act like it doesn't matter...no one said you couldn't feel. But count your blessings...surround yourself with your precious people. Draw your strength and motivation from them when you can't find it within yourself.

_He reached across the space between them in took her hand squeezing it slightly...letting her know that for tonight she could draw her strength from him. _


End file.
